1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a collapsible safety shield for protecting a drill press operator from being injured by the rotating drill bit or the rotating chuck that supports the drill bit or from metal shavings coming from the workpiece or danger of the operator's hair or clothing from being pulled into the rotating equipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Vernon et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,138 shows a safety guard for use in mounting to the drill housing of a drill press. This guard is a hollow, transparent plastic cylinder which is of a height sufficient to extend between the non-rotatable drill housing and to extend below the rotating drill chuck but the drill bit supported in the chuck is completely exposed. This transparent safety guard only protects the drill press operator from involvement with the rotating chuck and not from protection from the rotating drill bit.
The Weller et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,497 describes four modifications of a guard for protecting a drilling machine operator from a drill bit mounted in a vertical drilling machine. The guard of this patent has a split ring at the top to be clamped to a non-rotating spindle of the drill press. Extending downwardly from this split ring is a vertical slide arrangement that supports a pair of transparent plastic half-shields so as to allow the operator to see the action of the drill bit during drilling. This patent has several modifications of vertically movable arrangements between the upper split ring and the lower half-shields. The design of this Weller patent has no means across the bottom wall of the shields for protecting against the turning action of the drill bit.
The Aslen U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,717 describes a collapsible safety guard for application to the barrel of a vertical drilling machine. There is a guard body clamped to the barrel of the drilling machine, and a guard sleeve or skirt that depends from the guard body, and the sleeve is provided with a plurality of apertures fitted with clear-view panels, while the apertures are separated by a longitudinal breaker bar to break off slivers of metal cut from the workpiece so as to reduce the scoring of the transparent panels. The guard sleeve is held on the guard body by engagement of slide pins with inclined slot formations.
The John U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,959 describes a retractable guard for an axially movable cutting tool spindle of a machine tool. There is a stainless steel strip in the form of a telescopic, collapsible guard so that axial movement of the drill bit will vary the amount of overlap of the turns of the helical spiral strip.
The Campbell U.S. Pat. No. 1,058,149 relates to a safety attachment for high-speed drills that is adapted to prevent breakage of the drill bit when the drill passes through the workpiece or into a blow-hole. This patent does not relate to a safety guard for protecting the hands of an operator of a drill press from coming into contact with a drill bit.
The Wiespetat U.S. Pat. No. 1,563,887 relates to a safety guard comprising a single cylindrical shield that is suspended by a single strap from the rack feed of the drill press to prevent contact with the rotating chuck, but it does not protect the operator from contacting the drill bit.